Quiz: Should you have a Roommate?
Take this quiz to see if you should live with roommate!
Quiz: Should You Live on Campus?
Scholarship Applications Accepted through May 7
OAR will accept applications for the 2018 OAR Scholarship Program starting Monday, December 4, 2017 through Monday, May 7, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Applicants can apply to either the Schwallie Family Scholarship or the Lisa Hussman Scholarship. Each offers $3,000 scholarships to students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (DSM-IV or 5 criteria) pursuing full-time…
OAR Visits “Most Autism-Friendly City”
In 2014, OAR’s Board of Directors and Scientific Council decided to make every effort to schedule their annual meetings in conjunction with autism conferences around the country whenever possible. This led to meetings in Boston and sponsorship of the Current Trends in Autism conference in November 2015, followed by meeting in Columbus, Ohio, and a…
6 Reasons to Cheer from the Autism Society Conference!
The Autism Society Conference is a safe place to be around people who genuinely want the best outcomes for autistic individuals at every stage of their lives. The people who organize it do a great job at being inclusive — all voices are welcome and everyone has an opportunity to be heard. More autistic voices…
13 Things I Want My Son’s School to Know Because of His Autism
If you are a parent of a child with autism or a disability, you know the tug-of-war between the school and the parent is real and can be stressful. The IEP meeting every year is something many of us dread. You might attend seminars, ask for ideas in autism groups online, read various tips and tricks, try…
Integrated Classrooms Benefit Both Kids With Autism And Their Peers
This piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post and is re-posted here with permission. My oldest son came home one day with an excellent idea. Little did we know how it would shape all our lives to come. In Grade 4, Liam handed me an application to attend Montreal’s Mackay Centre Schoolwhere he, as a typically…
5 Practical Tips for Teaching Students with Autism
Next in our back to school series, self-advocate Ron Sandison shares his tips for educators teaching children on the autism spectrum. My sister-in-law is a two time teacher of the year winner for her county with sixteen years of experience. Her first teaching assignment lasted just two weeks. She was hired as assistant teacher of…
Use Inflexibility to Teach Flexibility
Young people with autism often have differences in their flexibility skills. Sometimes these are called “problems with flexibility” or “cognitive and behavioral rigidity.” Certainly these differences can get in the way of many day-to-day situations such as social interactions, transitioning to less preferred activities, managing differences/change, and flexible thinking (“big picture” thinking). But these differences…
START Succeeds in Improving Social Skills
In 2013, OAR funded a research study that evaluated a social skills group intervention for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Principal investigators Robert Koegel, Ph.D., and Ty Vernon, Ph.D., from the Koegel Autism Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, set out to examine if the program could improve adolescents’ social skills in…
